Currently comprised of Chris Barron (vocals), Eric Schenkman (guitar, vocals) Aaron Comess (drums, percussion), and Mark White (bass), the New York-based rock band Spin Doctors can trace their origins back to the late 1980s — and to a band called Trucking Company, which featured Schenkman, Blues Traveler‘s John Popper and later Barron, who was Popper’s childhood friend from Princeton, NJ. When Popper left the band to focus on his primary gig with Blues Traveler, Baron and Schenkman decided on a name change — going with Spin Doctors, and recruiting Comess and White to complete the original lineup. Along with JOVM mainstay Rene Lopez, who was then the frontman of The Authority, the members of Spin Doctors developed a reputation for lengthy jam-based sets, opening for Blues Traveler at the renowned jam-band club The Wetlands Preserve; in fact, the band’s debut EP UP for Grabs . . . Live was recorded live at the venue and released in January 1991.

The band’s full-length debut and best known album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite was released in August 1991 and although the album was largely ignored commercially, the band developed a reputation for a relentless touring schedule, which helped them gain a growing fanbase; in fact, by the summer of 1992, the band played the inaugural H.O.R.D.E Festival with Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler and Phish. Interestingly, around the same time, the band began to see commercial attention as album singles “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” which landed at number 17 on the Billboard 100 and “Two Princes,” which landed at number 7 on the Billboard 100 thanks in part to regular radio and MTV airplay.

By September 1992, Pocket Full of Kryptonite was certified Gold and received another big boost in sales after the band’s October 1992 Saturday Night Liveperformance. That was followed by the release of album singles “What Time Is It.” “How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Can Have Me)? and “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” — all of which received video treatments from frequent collaborator, director and filmmaker Rich Murray. Ultimately, the album sold more than 5 million copies domestically and 5 million copies internationally, and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Their headlining Brooklyn Bowl set saw the band playing a mostly nostalgia-based set featuring material from Pocket Full of Kryptonite, their 5 albums since and newer material. Opening the night was the aforementioned JOVM mainstay Rene Lopez. Check out photos from the show below.

Photo Caption: Spin Doctors performing at Brooklyn Bowl last week.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of its seven year history, you’ve come across a growing number of posts featuring the New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and JOVM mainstay artist Rene Lopez. And throughout that same period of time, Lopez has managed to cement a reputation as an artist, who has uncompromisingly refused to be pigeonholed into one particular genre or style as he has meshed salsa, boogaloo, old-school hip-hop and electronica into the cohesive and party friendly E.L.S.; salsa, Bossa Nova, tropicalia, 70s funk and jazz on his most adult, and most deeply personal Paint the Moon Gold; and slinky seductive synth-based R&B inspired by the likes of Prince, The Gap Band, Rick James, Chic and others — while interestingly enough being a bit of a return to his days in The Authority, with the Love Has No Mercy EP and his Jam of the Month series. His opening set was mostly focused around his Jam of the Month series, which includes what was one of my favorite singles of 2016, “Heavy Baby, Heavy,” as well as some older material.

William Ruben Helms

I'm a music blogger, critic and photographer, who has had articles and photos published in The New York Press, New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, Ins&Outs Magazine, The Noise Beneath the Apple, Glide Magazine, The Whiskey Dregs Magazine and others.